London Stripes

I didn’t know what to think when I saw and read the recipe for London Stripes. I’ve never heard of this cookie before, so I had to Googled it to see if there was any information about the recipe. I got nothing. Seems London Stripes from Cookies by Bess is a one of a kind, unique recipe…which as you will see below, is definitely true!

The first thing I noticed about this recipe is that it calls for 8 eggs! Four in the cookie crust and 4 egg whites in the topping. I kept reading and reading the recipe to make sure I wasn’t reading wrong. I thought maybe the cookie crust would use the egg yolks and the topping the egg whites.

In the end, I followed the recipe as written; 4 whole eggs in the crust and 4 egg whites in the topping.  The end result bar cookies tasted great, so not sure if there was a mistake in the recipe or not. If there was you certainly can’t tell!

Putting the layers together to make London Stripes was fun and resulted in a unique bar cookie! You certainly taste the eggs, then the butter, then the jam, all with nuts…unique and wonderful!

I’m rating London Stripes 2-stars for cookie baking difficulty. There are a good amount of steps involved, but nothing too difficult or time consuming. Just different in such a good way!

To make this London Stripes recipe, I had to run to the grocery store to pick up some jam and another dozen eggs!

There is always some type of jelly or jam in my refrigerator. This time I had strawberry, grape, and apricot…but there wasn’t 1 ½ cups of any of them. For this recipe I wanted to try something different…after searching the jelly aisle at the grocery store, I ended up finding Red Plum Jam from Smucker’s. I don’t remember seeing this type of jam before, so I decided to try it!

I got started mixing one ingredient at a time per the recipe. Adding the eggs made the cookie dough such a nice and rich golden color.

The recipe calls for 2/3 cups of nuts…but doesn’t mention what kind of nuts. The topping calls for shredded almonds, so I decided to use chopped almonds in the cookie dough.

I do have to mention, the cookie crust dough was very spongy and a little sticky. This had to be due to the eggs. I’m not a baking scientist or chemistry wiz, so I don’t know for sure, but all those eggs had to make a difference in the consistency of the dough!

The stickiness of the dough made it a little difficult to spread, but I just dipped the palm of my hand in a little flour to help.

The recipe says to spread the dough in a “greased jelly roll” pan. I always use the normal size jelly roll pan unless the recipe specifies the size. After spreading the cookie crust, I noticed it was quite thick in the pan. Next time I’ll use the next size up jelly roll pan, as the cookie crust in the finished bar cookies was a bit too thick.

As the cookie crust baked, I could see the butter melting and the eggs binding into a dense crust. I ended up baking the crust about 5 minutes more than suggested to make sure it was done.

Out of the oven you can see how dense and thick the cookie crust is.

After cooling the crust, I began spreading the red plum jam.  The recipe calls for 1 ½ cups of jam.  My jar was 18 ounces (just over 2 cups)…so I used about 2/3s of the jar.  I wish I had used it all!

Next, I began beating the 4 egg whites…

…adding the vanilla and powdered sugar…

…and continuing to beat until the egg whites were stiff.

Spreading the egg whites over the jam was a bit tricky. I used a teaspoon to scoop and spread them. Not difficult, just take your time so the jam doesn’t get mixed up in egg whites.

Next, I spread the almonds on top of the egg whites. I didn’t have sliced almonds, so I just chopped the almonds up and spread them on top.

Finally, I was ready to bake!

The egg whites turned to a golden brown color while baking.

After letting the cookies cool completely, I got started cutting. The recipe says to cut into “stripes”. I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, so I decided to be a bit creative and cut what I thought stripes might be.

And, here you go! London Stripes!

You can see the crust is a bit thick compared to the jam and egg white topping. The larger jelly roll pan and using more jam will even everything out!

The cookie crust has such a unique flavor, one I realized after multiple cookie tries, I really liked! I had a hard time eating just one cookie at a time…you might want to cut them into small bars so you won’t feel guilty for eating 2 or 3 cookies at a time!

I hope you will try London Stripes…they are perfect for a fancy tea party or casual family/friends gathering. Everyone will want the recipe, I’m sure!

Enjoy!

XXOO,

Janet

 

Print